"America's Most Wanted" will help hunt killer of Brockton teen

BROCKTON - "America's Most Wanted," a national investigative crime show on

the FOX network, wants to help catch the killer of a 17-year-old city teen.

By Maria Papadopoulos

America's Most Wanted," a national investigative crime show on the FOX network, wants to help catch the killer of a 17-year-old city teen.

Jose Gurley, 17, was gunned down early Saturday morning at Roosevelt Heights, a city-owned housing complex on Brockton's north side.

No arrests had been made in that shooting by Thursday afternoon, police said.

Shelaney Campbell, production assistant at "America's Most Wanted," said show producers are considering doing a story on the Gurley murder in August.

Campbell said Gurley's murder drew interest from the show because the teen, a star athlete who attended West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School through the school choice program and who was college-bound, "was actually trying to make it."

"We'd like to do a big story on it," she said.

"Really what we want to do is showcase what it's like to live in Brockton," she added.

A news video on the Gurley murder by The Enterprise was expected to go live today on the America's Most Wanted Web site. Viewers of the investigative crime show help catch fugitives.

"We're trying to put it up on our Web site and see if we can provide any help" in catching Gurley's killer, Campbell said.

Authorities are looking for any leads in the city's recent shootings. Gurley's murder preceded the shooting of an 18-year-old city teen on Winthrop Street at about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Mateus Mendes, 18, was in critical condition at a Boston hospital Thursday afternoon after he was shot multiple times near the James Edgar Playground. No suspects had been identified in that shooting Thursday afternoon.

"Anything that can help us is a good thing, certainly. A lot of times people will do something and flee the area," Brockton Police Chief William Conlon said.

"They will go to a relative's home and if somebody sees it on TV, and says 'Oh, that's why you're here.' So you never know," Conlon said.

Anyone with any information on recent city shootings is asked to call Brockton detectives at 508-941-0234.

Gurley was the third teenager shot dead in Brockton in the past two months.

Maria Papadopoulos of The Enterprise (Brockton, Mass.) can be reached at mpapa@enterprisenews.com.